In C++ "friend" keyword is useful in Operator overloading and Making Bridge. 1.) Friend keyword in operator overloading :Example for operator overloading is: Let say we have a class "Point" that has two float variable"x"(for x-coordinate) and "y"(for y-coordinate). Now we have to overload "<<"(extraction operator) such that if we call "cout << pointobj" then it will print x and y coordinate (where pointobj is an object of class Point). To do this we have two option: 1.Overload "operator <<()" function in "ostream" class. 2.Overload "operator<<()" function in "Point" class. Now First option is not good because if we need to overload again this operator for some different class then we have to again make change in "ostream" class. That's why second is best option. Now compiler can call "operator <<()" function:

   1.Using ostream object cout.As: cout.operator<<(Pointobj) (form ostream class).
   2.Call without an object.As: operator<<(cout, Pointobj) (from Point class).

Beacause we have implemented overloading in Point class. So to call this function without an object we have to add"friend" keyword because we can call a friend function without an object. Now function declaration will be As: "friend ostream &operator<<(ostream &cout, Point &pointobj);" 2.) Friend keyword in making bridge : Suppose we have to make a function in which we have to access private member of two or more classes ( generally termed as "bridge" ) . How to do this: To access private member of a class it should be member of that class. Now to access private member of other class every class should declare that function as a friend function. For example : Suppose there are two class A and B. A function "funcBridge()" want to access private member of both classes. Then both class should declare "funcBridge()" as: friend return_type funcBridge(A &a_obj, B & b_obj);I think this would help to understand friend keyword.

树的例子是一个很好的例子: 在一些不同的类中实现一个对象 具有继承关系。

也许您还需要它具有一个构造函数protected和force 人们用你的“朋友”工厂。

．.． 好吧，坦白地说，没有它你也能生活。

我只使用friend关键字来单元测试受保护的函数。有些人会说不应该测试受保护的功能。然而，在添加新功能时，我发现这个工具非常有用。

然而，我没有直接在类声明中使用关键字in，而是使用一个漂亮的模板-hack来实现这一点:

template<typename T>
class FriendIdentity {
public:
  typedef T me;
};

/**
 * A class to get access to protected stuff in unittests. Don't use
 * directly, use friendMe() instead.
 */
template<class ToFriend, typename ParentClass>
class Friender: public ParentClass
{
public:
  Friender() {}
  virtual ~Friender() {}
private:
// MSVC != GCC
#ifdef _MSC_VER
  friend ToFriend;
#else
  friend class FriendIdentity<ToFriend>::me;
#endif
};

/**
 * Gives access to protected variables/functions in unittests.
 * Usage: <code>friendMe(this, someprotectedobject).someProtectedMethod();</code>
 */
template<typename Tester, typename ParentClass>
Friender<Tester, ParentClass> & 
friendMe(Tester * me, ParentClass & instance)
{
    return (Friender<Tester, ParentClass> &)(instance);
}

这使我能够做到以下几点:

friendMe(this, someClassInstance).someProtectedFunction();

至少适用于GCC和MSVC。

看来我迟到了14年。但情况是这样的。

TLDR TLDR

有了友类，您就可以将封装扩展到组成数据结构的类组。

TLDR

Your data structure in general consists of multiple classes. Similarly to a traditional class (supported by your programming language), your data structure is a generalized class which also has data and invariants on that data which spans across objects of multiple classes. Encapsulation protects those invariants against accidental modification of the data from the outside, so that the data-structure's operations ("member functions") work correctly. Friend classes extend encapsulation from classes to your generalized class.

太长

类是一种数据类型，它带有指定数据类型值子集(称为有效状态)的不变量。对象是类的有效状态。类的成员函数将给定对象从有效状态移动到另一个有效状态。

对象数据不能从类成员函数外部修改，这一点很重要，因为这可能会破坏类不变量(即将对象移动到无效状态)。封装禁止从类外部访问对象数据。这是编程语言的一个重要安全特性，因为它使无意中破坏类不变量变得很困难。

类通常是实现数据结构的自然选择，因为数据结构的属性(例如性能)依赖于其数据上的不变量(例如红黑树不变量)。然而，有时单个类不足以描述一个数据结构。

数据结构是将数据从有效状态移动到另一有效状态的数据、不变量和函数的任何集合。这是一个类的泛化。细微的区别在于，数据可能分散在不同的数据类型上，而不是集中在单一的数据类型上。

数据结构示例

A prototypical example of a data structure is a graph which is stored using separate objects for vertices (class Vertex), edges (class Edge), and the graph (class Graph). These classes do not make sense independently. The Graph class creates Vertexs and Edges by its member functions (e.g. graph.addVertex() and graph.addEdge(aVertex, bVertex)) and returns pointers (or similar) to them. Vertexs and Edges are similarly destroyed by their owning Graph (e.g. graph.removeVertex(vertex) and graph.removeEdge(edge)). The collection of Vertex objects, Edge objects and the Graph object together encode a mathematical graph. In this example the intention is that Vertex/Edge objects are not shared between Graph objects (other design choices are also possible).

一个Graph对象可以存储所有顶点和边的列表，而每个顶点可以存储一个指向其所属Graph的指针。因此，Graph对象表示整个数学图，只要需要数学图，就可以传递它。

不变的例子

图数据结构的一个不变量是顶点被列在它的所有者图的列表中。这个不变量跨越了Vertex对象和Graph对象。多个类型的多个对象可以参与给定的不变量。

封装的例子

与类类似，数据结构得益于封装，它可以防止数据被意外修改。这是因为数据结构需要保留不变量，以便能够以承诺的方式运行，就像类一样。

In the graph data structure example, you would state that Vertex is a friend of Graph, and also make the constructors and data-members of Vertex private so that a Vertex can only be created and modified by Graph. In particular, Vertex would have a private constructor which accepts a pointer to its owning graph. This constructor is called in graph.addVertex(), which is possible because Vertex is a friend of Graph. (But note that Graph is not a friend of Vertex: there is no need for Vertex to be able to access Graph's vertex-list, say.)

术语

数据结构的定义本身就像一个类。我建议我们开始使用术语“广义类”来描述将数据从有效状态移动到另一有效状态的任何数据集、不变量和函数。c++类是广义类的一种特殊类型。不言而喻，友类是将封装从c++类扩展到广义类的精确机制。

(事实上，我希望用“广义类”的概念取代“类”，并使用“本机类”来表示编程语言支持的类的特殊情况。然后，在教授类时，您将学习本机类和这些广义类。但这可能会令人困惑。)

好友对于回调也很有用。可以将回调函数作为静态方法来实现

class MyFoo
{
private:
    static void callback(void * data, void * clientData);
    void localCallback();
    ...
};

回调在内部调用localCallback, clientData中有你的实例。在我看来，

还是……

class MyFoo
{
    friend void callback(void * data, void * callData);
    void localCallback();
}

这允许友元在cpp中被定义为c风格的函数，而不会使类变得混乱。

类似地，我经常看到的一种模式是将一个类的所有真正的私有成员放到另一个类中，该类在头文件中声明，在cpp中定义，并加为好友。这允许编码器向头文件的用户隐藏类的很多复杂性和内部工作。

在头文件中:

class MyFooPrivate;
class MyFoo
{
    friend class MyFooPrivate;
public:
    MyFoo();
    // Public stuff
private:
    MyFooPrivate _private;
    // Other private members as needed
};

在cpp中，

class MyFooPrivate
{
public:
   MyFoo *owner;
   // Your complexity here
};

MyFoo::MyFoo()
{
    this->_private->owner = this;
}

这样就更容易隐藏下游不需要看到的东西。

In C++ "friend" keyword is useful in Operator overloading and Making Bridge. 1.) Friend keyword in operator overloading :Example for operator overloading is: Let say we have a class "Point" that has two float variable"x"(for x-coordinate) and "y"(for y-coordinate). Now we have to overload "<<"(extraction operator) such that if we call "cout << pointobj" then it will print x and y coordinate (where pointobj is an object of class Point). To do this we have two option: 1.Overload "operator <<()" function in "ostream" class. 2.Overload "operator<<()" function in "Point" class. Now First option is not good because if we need to overload again this operator for some different class then we have to again make change in "ostream" class. That's why second is best option. Now compiler can call "operator <<()" function:

   1.Using ostream object cout.As: cout.operator<<(Pointobj) (form ostream class).
   2.Call without an object.As: operator<<(cout, Pointobj) (from Point class).

Beacause we have implemented overloading in Point class. So to call this function without an object we have to add"friend" keyword because we can call a friend function without an object. Now function declaration will be As: "friend ostream &operator<<(ostream &cout, Point &pointobj);" 2.) Friend keyword in making bridge : Suppose we have to make a function in which we have to access private member of two or more classes ( generally termed as "bridge" ) . How to do this: To access private member of a class it should be member of that class. Now to access private member of other class every class should declare that function as a friend function. For example : Suppose there are two class A and B. A function "funcBridge()" want to access private member of both classes. Then both class should declare "funcBridge()" as: friend return_type funcBridge(A &a_obj, B & b_obj);I think this would help to understand friend keyword.